Posted by Midge Wilson on November 3, 2009 at 20:43
After several months of preperation, we have finally opened our new library in our small, country church. I am the librarian and I need any suggestions on expanding the ministry opportunities for our library. I have a few children who participate but, by far, most of our library users are ladies who read mostly Beverly Lewis, Wanda Brunstetter novels, etc.I believe I have accumulated a good starting inventory of books, although we will never be large (approx. 1,000 volumes). Any suggestions on activities to cultivate interest? I have no prior training to help me out here--just a desire to encourage use of our library. I hope to expand in the area of children's ministry, particularly. I'd appreciate any help.thanks,midge wilson, Mississippi
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Many of us would probably agree that we check out more children's books, Christian fiction, and DVDs than anything else. I have found that reading clubs for children, storytime -- anything that gets children into the library usually brings their parents in, too. If they get interested as pre-schoolers, they will usually continue to come to the library. Just promote, promote, promote!
Love hearing about your new library and anticipate you will get lots of suggestions from CLN members. Have you discovered our article on starting/restarting a new church library on www.lifeway.com/churchlibrary? To save you a minute, I'll give you a link: How to Begin or Renew a Church Library.
You can count on us to be praying for you!
Morlee Maynard, Ministry Specialist
LifeWay
Midge Wilson > Morlee MaynardNovember 9, 2009 13:59
Thanks, Morlee! I do so appreciate all the help I've gotten from this group!
midge
I started answering your request and was interrupted. Now, I do not know if what I said was submitted or not, but since I did not click on it, I will assume that it just disappeared. I believe I was suggesting that one good way to spark interest is to have a book review. It is usually easy to enlist an interesting person to review a book and I recommend a really good best seller on the Christian list, such as The Magnificent Obsession by Anne Graham Lotz, or "Green" by Ted Dekker. He is an extremely popular writer now and this is the beginning of a new Circle Series by him. He is imaginative and creative--for example in this book the character is plopped down on the planet 2000 years hence! Another good one is, "Imagine Your Life Without Fear." by Max Lucado. I have found that a good book review by a good speaker can get people excited.
Midge Wilson > Maxine Johnson Bersch LovernNovember 8, 2009 7:53
Thanks, Maxine!
I've thought about something similar--how do you do this? Do you just ask one person to review a book or do you (ala "b ook club style") buy several copies of the book and then all get together and discuss?
I do so want to get people to check out our library--we have some great books and even the fiction has such good life lessons. Thanks for the encouragement!
Replies
You can count on us to be praying for you!
Morlee Maynard, Ministry Specialist
LifeWay
midge
I've thought about something similar--how do you do this? Do you just ask one person to review a book or do you (ala "b ook club style") buy several copies of the book and then all get together and discuss?
I do so want to get people to check out our library--we have some great books and even the fiction has such good life lessons. Thanks for the encouragement!